How to remove metadata from a PDF before you share it
Updated October 11, 2026
Export a report from Word and the PDF remembers your name, your company, the software you used and the day you saved it. None of it shows on the page, but it stays in the file.
What is hiding in a PDF
There are two layers. The first is the document information: title, author, subject, keywords, the program that created the content, the program that wrote the final file, and the creation and modification dates. The second is everything else the file stores without showing it: metadata in a newer format called XMP, comments, attached files, JavaScript and form fields. Photos placed in the file can carry their own location data too.
Look before you clear
View Properties shows the page count and the document information fields on one screen, and it is free. Open your file in it first. Seeing your own name in the Author field is the quickest way to decide whether you care. It shows the first layer only.
The quick clean
Remove Metadata clears the document information fields (title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer), both the creation and modification dates, and the XMP metadata. It leaves the visible pages exactly as they were, and it does not touch comments, attached files, JavaScript or form fields. If you would rather correct a field than empty it, Edit Metadata changes individual values.
The thorough clean
Sanitize PDF goes further. It does everything Remove Metadata does, strips embedded JavaScript and attached files, and removes form fields. Two limits are worth knowing. Comments are not deleted. They are flattened onto the page, so anything you could see before is still visible afterwards. And it does not edit data inside embedded photos.
Form fields deserve a warning of their own. Text already filled in stays on the page, but the fields stop being fillable. If the form has to stay interactive, do not sanitize it.
What neither tool changes
Neither tool edits data inside embedded photos, which can carry their own location tags. Remove the tags from the photo before you place it in the PDF.
Neither tool touches visible text. A name printed on page two is still there afterwards. For that job, use real redaction.
Check the result
Open the cleaned file in View Properties and look again. The six fields and both dates should be empty. View Properties cannot show XMP metadata, so it cannot confirm that part of the clean-up. Check every time.
Remove Metadata, Edit Metadata and Sanitize PDF are Pro tools. Each has one free trial, and the trial output is watermarked, so use it to test on a real file, not to send. View Properties stays free. The Pro page has the full list.